Notable towns without Stagecoach local buses

[317 forever]

I have been thinking about places that do not have any Stagecoach local buses, or at least no longer do. I am excluding Megabus, National Express contracts (if applicable) and trains such as East Midlands Trains.

I understand Birmingham no longer has any Stagecoach buses, but used to have route X20 from Stratford and X64 from Northampton. Also, nearby Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Huddersfield only had Stagecoach buses from 2005-08 as part of their Yorkshire Traction purchase prior to divesting Huddersfield. They used to have a Sunday evening service to Bradford (route 425 from Wakefield).

I understand Stagecoach have never run any buses to Halifax or Keighley.

Likewise, Truro, Penzance and much of Cornwall. They do run to Bude, and ran to Wadebridge briefly following the demise of Western Greyhound. Also, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, Haddington, Galashiels and North Wales towns such as Rhyl and Holyhead.

I am particularly curious to find places that have never seen a regular Stagecoach bus.

Anywhere else you can think of, feel free to mention such places here!

 

[freetoview33]

Bristol hasn't majorly seen any, although there was a few services from Bristol to Newport for many years. Then nothing for a while, now there is the Falcon and a few services that come into Bristol with another on the way.

 

[Lrd]

Southampton used to have a few Stagecoach buses but haven't had any for a few years now. Stagecoach do currently have SWT/Stagecoach liveried replacement buses/coaches that can be seen occasionally but when First/MTR takeover I'm sure these will disappear.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Milton Keynes only has regional buses from Stagecoach, no local ones. (Some of those regional buses do provide for a gap in the local service, but that is a side-effect, not their primary purpose).

Indeed, it was (Stagecoach) Cambus's purchase of United Counties that is the reason, they had to divest something for reasons of competition law, and that something was the MK local services which were sold to Julian Peddle who later flogged up to the present incumbent Arriva (who, ironically, elsewhere, are more a regional bus company than a local one).

 

[ag51ruk]

Derby hasn't had any Stagecoach buses for years (and that was only Sunday contracted services)

 

[Harpers Tate]

Leeds? X62 to/from Hull only, I think.

 

[TheWalrus]

Bristol hasn't majorly seen any, although there was a few services from Bristol to Newport for many years. Then nothing for a while, now there is the Falcon and a few services that come into Bristol with another on the way.

What is on the way?

 

[robertclark125]

A couple of places in Scotland for you. Clydebank, Greenock, and Galashiels.

 

[Greenback]

Swansea and the rest of South West Wales has never had any Stagecoach operations at all. Unless I missed something when I was living away.

 

[Blindtraveler]

The whole of East Lothian/Easten borders and Berwickshire is without any really, Musselburgh, Haddington, North Berwick, Dunbar, Jedburgh, Kelso, Berwick on Tweed and a good bit into the Northeast untill the excillent Newcastle and T and W stagecoach opps kick in.

When the South Queensferry service ends next month Edinburgh woant have local stagecoach opps any more but still good regional one.

Livingston and West Lothian over into Lanarckshire also sees little or no Stagecoach traffic with the likes of Motherwell, Hamilton and East Kilbride included.

Further south the Maidston and Medway areas of Kent have none, possibly places like Leicester also?

 

[mildertduck]

Durham has never had Stagecoach, and nor, to my recollection has Darlington (although Newcastle and Hartlepool both do).

 

[iantherev]

Swansea and the rest of South West Wales has never had any Stagecoach operations at all. Unless I missed something when I was living away.

Stagecoach used to work into Swansea on the X75 from Merthyr until around 10 years ago.

 

[Greenback]

Stagecoach used to work into Swansea on the X75 from Merthyr until around 10 years ago.

Looks like I did miss something, then

 

[AB93]

Further south the Maidston and Medway areas of Kent have none, possibly places like Leicester also?

Maidstone has Stagecoach - from Ashford on the 10X

Leicester has Stagecoach - from Coventry on the X48

 

[AB93]

Durham has never had Stagecoach, and nor, to my recollection has Darlington (although Newcastle and Hartlepool both do).

Darlington had Stagecoach - possibly the most (in)famous Stagecoach bus operation of all time.

 

[Wolvercoter]

Didcot used to have a regular Stagecoach bus service... even night buses back in the 00s. Now, I believe, there are none.

Abingdon still has the hourly 31 and less frequent 15 & 34, which is a much reduced offering compared to 15 years or so ago.

 

[pemma]

No Stagecoach in Warrington, Macclesfield or Crewe.

 

[MCR247]

Only 2 stagecoach routes in Nottingham, pronto from Mansfield (shared branding with trent barton) and Sherwood Arrow out to Robin Hood areas

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Durham has never had Stagecoach, and nor, to my recollection has Darlington (although Newcastle and Hartlepool both do).

Darlington??????????

 

[sk688]

Not notable towns as such , but Stagecoach are pretty small in London , compared to Go Ahead , Arriva and Metroline

They only operate in East and South London , and they have zero presence in West , South and North London

 

[90sWereBetter]

Not notable towns as such , but Stagecoach are pretty small in London , compared to Go Ahead , Arriva and Metroline

They only operate in East and South London , and they have zero presence in West , South and North London

That being said, they absolutely dominate East London, although Go Ahead and Tower Transit are making inroads.

Stagecoach have never operated in Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Ipswich and Colchester, and until they bought Norfolk Green a few years ago, they were nowhere near Norwich either.

 

[W-on-Sea]

Didcot used to have a regular Stagecoach bus service... even night buses back in the 00s. Now, I believe, there are none.

Abingdon still has the hourly 31 and less frequent 15 & 34, which is a much reduced offering compared to 15 years or so ago.

I think it was (latterly, anyway) just one night bus on each of Friday and Saturday nights that went to Didcot - leaving Oxford at 2.30am. That outlived the abandonment (to Thames Travel) of the daytime 32/33 routes they used to run there by quite a few years. I can't imagine it got a great deal of custom, not least as the route it took was far from direct. It was diverted to Wantage instead maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

There is certainly overall a clearer divide between (what is now) Go-Ahead and Stagecoach territories in Oxfordshire (outside Oxford itself) than there used to be.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Stagecoach used to work into Swansea on the X75 from Merthyr until around 10 years ago.

I was going to mention that one AND that Stagecoach Rhondda also operated a half share of the 701 TrawsCambria service via Swansea and Carmarthen - a single round trip each direction from Cardiff to Holyhead.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Darlington had Stagecoach - possibly the most (in)famous Stagecoach bus operation of all time.

Indeed, hence my incredulity earlier. They had the most contentious act of corporate bullying with them setting up their Darlington operation in 1994 to force Darlington council to sell them their local bus operation or go to the wall. The latter happened.

Stagecoach then operated in the town until 2007 until they sold their operations to Arriva; the Faverdale depot is the former Stagecoach garage.

Stagecoach did then operate the X90 service to Newcastle that didn't reach Durham city but got close as it served Ferryhill, exited onto the A1M at Bowburn and then back into Chester le Street.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Maidstone has Stagecoach - from Ashford on the 10X

Leicester has Stagecoach - from Coventry on the X48

Leicester also has the X7 from Northampton (and Milton Keynes), historic successor to the X61.

 

[pemma]

Huddersfield only had Stagecoach buses from 2005-08 as part of their Yorkshire Traction purchase prior to divesting Huddersfield. They used to have a Sunday evening service to Bradford (route 425 from Wakefield).

There was actually a Sunday Only Huddersfield to Buxton via Holmfirth service operated by Stagecoach East Midlands prior to Stagecoach acquiring Yorkshire Traction. I think the service transferred to Stagecoach Yorkshire after they acquired Yorkshire Traction but wasn't retained.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Milton Keynes only has regional buses from Stagecoach, no local ones. (Some of those regional buses do provide for a gap in the local service, but that is a side-effect, not their primary purpose).

Indeed, it was (Stagecoach) Cambus's purchase of United Counties that is the reason, they had to divest something for reasons of competition law, and that something was the MK local services which were sold to Julian Peddle who later flogged up to the present incumbent Arriva (who, ironically, elsewhere, are more a regional bus company than a local one).

Well, you've got that back to front. :roll:

Stagecoach purchased United Counties from the government as part of the NBC nationalisation, so it's one of the oldest parts of their empire. It came with depots and operations at Bedford, Northampton, Biggleswade, Corby, and Kettering AND the depot at Huntingdon.

Cambus (aka CHL Holdings) purchased Milton Keynes Citybus from their management, privatised via an MBO.

Stagecoach subsequently purchased CHL. However, the MMC was concerned that it would remove virtually all competition from Swindon to the Fens save for Oxford Bus, Northampton Transport and Whippet. So they allowed Stagecoach's purchase of Cambus on condition that they divested Huntingdon depot and operations (to Blazefield) and MK depot and operations (to Status Group).

 

[LiftFan]

I have never seen any stagecoach around Bath, although their presence is picked up in Chippenham, Swindon and Trowbridge. Frome doesn't have any Stagecoach service either although they appear to be an area deprived of major companies bar one route from First and one from National Express, not sure why a fairly large town does have most of its routes run by independent companies (IMO Faresaver do a much better job anyway)

 

[Alex 2901]

Maidstone has Stagecoach - from Ashford on the 10X

Leicester has Stagecoach - from Coventry on the X48

X48 is a once a day trip from Coventry to Nuneaton only. 48 runs all week to Leicester every 30 minutes.
X7 also runs to Leicester, from Milton Keynes via Northampton. Monday to Saturday only.

 

[ooo]

I have never seen any stagecoach around Bath, although their presence is picked up in Chippenham, Swindon and Trowbridge. Frome doesn't have any Stagecoach service either although they appear to be an area deprived of major companies bar one route from First and one from National Express, not sure why a fairly large town does have most of its routes run by independent companies (IMO Faresaver do a much better job anyway)

Stagecoach now have the 620 in Bath which was won from Wessex

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